Kekkaku : [Tuberculosis]
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Kekkaku : [Tuberculosis] · Sep 2014
[The evaluation of the utility of QuantiFERON TB-Gold In-Tube; QFT-GIT].
Four years has passed since QuantiFERON TB-Gold In-Tube (QFT-GIT), the third generation test, has replaced QuantiFERON-Gold in Japan. The QFT-GIT test detects interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), which is released from lymphocytes present in blood after exposure to the M. tuberculosis complex antigens ESAT-6, CFP-10 and TB7.7. These proteins are absent from all Bacille-Calmette-Guérin (BCG) strains and from most non-tuberculosis mycobacteria, resulting in fewer false positive reactions as seen with the tuberculin skin test (TST). ⋯ We enrolled 79 contacts whose tests of QFT-GIT were equivocal results. The second QFT-GIT results were 42 negative (53.2%), 28 equivocal (35.4%) and nine positive (11.4%). 64% of the second QFT-GIT tests result in negative or positive among the first QFT-GIT equivocal contacts. When the second QFT-GIT tests were positive, it is highly probable that the contacts were infected tuberculosis and we adequately could treat latent tuberculosis infected contacts.